The Maryland legislature on Monday approved a bill that will result in state ownership of Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore and the creation of a non-profit company to run Thoroughbred racing in the state.

Lorenzo Ruiz, a trainer based at Los Alamitos in Southern California, has been suspended a total of seven years and ordered to pay fines and costs of $95,000 for violations related to the finding of the banned vasodilator diisopropylamine in three of his horses last year, according to the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit.

Total wagering in March on U.S. Thoroughbred races reversed recent month-over-month declines, posting a 1.0 percent gain despite a slight decline in the number of races held, according to figures distributed by Equibase on Friday.

Total wagering was $972.06 million, up $9.5 million when compared to the total wagering figure for March of last year. However, March of this year had 10 weekend dates, compared to eight in March of last year. Wagering on Thoroughbred races is generally far higher on weekends than on a weekdays.

The New York Racing Association has reached a sponsorship agreement with DraftKings that will make the sports-betting company an “official betting partner” of Saratoga Race Course and that track’s Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, as well as the presenting sponsor of the Grade 1 Travers Stakes on Aug. 24.

The agreement is an expansion of a separate, smaller sponsorship agreement between the two companies last year, when DraftKings was the presenting sponsor of the Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga.

Trainer Steve Asmussen said following Track Phantom’s fading fourth-place finish in the Louisiana Derby that he planned to try blinkers on the colt in the Kentucky Derby, and Track Phantom has been getting accustomed to the new equipment in daily gallops.  

“He looked beautiful training today,” Asmussen said Wednesday. “The blinkers are for what he did from the quarter pole to the wire last time, not what he does in the morning, but I do want them on him.” 

The 3-year-old filly Intricate came out of her disappointing fourth-place finish in the Fair Grounds Oaks with mucus in her upper-respiratory system and is currently in a holding pattern. 

“She had a significant amount of mucus on the scope,” trainer Brendan Walsh said. “I think it was enough to make an excuse. We’ve been treating her for it, just trying to get her right, get her healthy. All plans are on hold until we get her right.” 

The Minnesota Racing Commission on Tuesday voted 5-1 to approve the operation of historical horse racing machines at Canterbury Park and a Minnesota harness track, in a decision that is wrapped up in a longstanding dispute between the tracks and the state’s Indian tribes and a current legislative effort to authorize sports gambling.

There will be a pick three wager offered on the major Kentucky Derby prep races being run on Saturday.

Called the Big 3 Pick 3, the bet, with a base wager of $3 and a 19 percent takeout, will be offered on the Grade 2 Wood Memorial from Aqueduct, the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes from Keeneland, and the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby from Santa Anita.

The fields for the Wood and Santa Anita Derby were to be drawn Wednesday. The field for the Blue Grass was to be drawn Tuesday.

The $1 million purse of the 2018 Santa Anita Derby, won by Horse of the Year Justify, was formally redistributed by a board of California stewards on Saturday after the California Horse Racing Board reached a settlement approved by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge earlier this month.

Justify won the 2018 Santa Anita Derby and later swept the Triple Crown.

Robertino Diodoro, a trainer who is currently second in the Oaklawn Park standings, has been provisionally suspended by the Horseracing Integrity and Wagering Unit for possession of levothyroxine, a banned substance that can stimulate thyroid function, according to a ruling posted on the HIWU website on Friday afternoon.

Diodoro declined to comment on the suspension when reached on Saturday morning.